


crimson red, juliet

by kimaracretak



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Body Horror, Dark Side Rey, F/M, Force Bond (Star Wars), Smuggler Ben Solo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-31
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-10-01 15:53:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17247077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimaracretak/pseuds/kimaracretak
Summary: He lets her, though. Lets her nails rake bloody slashes down his cheeks, lets her pull his head down so her tongue can dip into the thorn-filled hollow where his eyes should have been. Used to be.[ Angsty plant-based body horror for angsty magic space babes ]





	crimson red, juliet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [spookykingdomstarlight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spookykingdomstarlight/gifts).



> Romeo ate Juliet today  
> She'll never have to be afraid again  
> Cause Romeo ate Juliet today  
> And everything was _crimson red, Juliet_
> 
> — '[Romeo Ate Juliet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3tA-6C356s)', Lordi

She paces the halls of the Supremacy with her eyes shut, leaves the droids to get out of her way all on their own. She knows the map of these halls better than she knows the map of her own veins, and her boots slide easily over the metal.

Easily, were it not for the memory of the scavenger boy. The boy, lying in wait on half the planets she's been to in the past standard year. The memory, lying in wait around the corners of her home.

He had offered her a home, the last time, as if she had overthrown Snoke to live a smuggler's life, as if leaving her fleet were as simple as stepping onto another ship.

Rey opens her eyes to see him standing at the end of the corridor, ghost-blue and translucent around the edges, and sighs.

"You weren't invited," she says, and doesn't bother to check that they're alone. She knows they are, for better or worse: the air is hollow here, the ever-present hum of a thousand engines quieter in her chest. Wherever they are - whenever they are - when they are like this they exist only for each other.

He turns, roses spilling from his empty eye sockets like tears. "But you're always welcomed here, Rey."

It should be a dream. It could be a vision. Sometimes Rey thinks this might be the only thing in all the galaxy she has never wanted, and yet, Ben Solo alone in her mind is the only thing she will never be rid of.

She thinks she might slap him, were she close enough. "I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask for you." Her hands clench into fists at her sides, nails digging into her palms as she fights against the rising urge to hit, to touch, to feel.

Ben smiles, his lips spread unsettlingly wide. His teeth are inhuman, blinding. "Then tell me to go."

He means the words to be a dare, she knows, but it's an ineffective one in the plaintive, breathy tone that she's grown so unwillingly familiar with. The rose petals drift in a bloody rain down his pale tunic, collect in a puddle at his feet. She's moved closer, close enough to see the thorns.

"You wouldn't leave."

It's a kindness she doesn't expect - a weakness she does expect - that he leaves unspoken that which she hasn't even said to herself: _I don't want to_.

But he doesn't say anything else, either, and despite herself Rey presses forward. "Why?" She fits her hand around his cheek and tries not to show her surprise when her fingers touch skin. He's here. They're here, alone together, and no matter how hard she pulls at his skin he'll never stand with her in the way that truly matters.

He lets her, though. Lets her nails rake bloody slashes down his cheeks, lets her pull his head down so her tongue can dip into the thorn-filled hollow where his eyes should have been. Used to be.

She'd left him blind the last time, as he had left her less a hand the time before. The struggle to grow back takes longer each time, but Rey remembers the week she had vines for fingers and wonders if she would let him leave her in such a state again.

Only for the novelty, she tells herself as she lets the thorns run along her lips and tongue before pressing her bloody mouth to his in something that hardly deserves to be called a kiss. Only for the thrill of meeting someone who matched her power, if not her hunger.

"Do something," she whispers. Bites down on his lips and swallows his blood, burning at the back of her throat. "If you won't do anything why won't you leave?"

_Why won't you show me why I'm worth staying for?_

Gently, unbearably gently, he takes the hand that he had once stolen, kisses each one of the still-green fingernails. "Because," he says, and the strips of skin she'd torn from his cheekbones flutter with every movement of his mouth. "Then we'd both be alone."

Rey presses her lips to the hollow of his throat, and bites down, and listens as he does not scream.


End file.
